World of Warcraft server disaster.

Ok, for the first time in about 18 months subscription, the Euro servers have been down for more than 24 hours. It sounds like an unavoidable hardware situation and I'm not surprised at how much complaining is going on on forums and the like. I am a little disappointed though, surely you guys can do SOMETHING for a whole day. (although I sympathise with any groups that had a 40 player raid scheduled for today. Takes some organisation for that kinda thing.)

I believe everyone affected is getting some extra time added to their account as compensation tho, and it gave me the chance to do some stuff at home that had been lurking for a while, and get a little further in Deus Ex. (Yes I really am still playing the original, and no I haven't finished it. Just hit Hong Kong.)

Guitar Hero Update

I've now completed 'Medium' which was evil enough, and got through all of ONE track on 'Hard' so I'm going back to 'Medium' with the aim of at least getting a 4 star rating on every track, and hopefully getting a full 5 stars on most of them. I have about 3/4 on 4 stars at the moment, and ONE 5 starred, 'Take me out' by Franz Ferdinand.

The main sticking point if the advanced techniques, I seem to be able to do one or the other, but not both at once, at least not while also following the on screen markers and staying in rhythm.

We shall see, expert mode is a distant dot on the horizon, but I'll be quite happy if I can get halfway thru hard in a month.

Frosties !

Go on, watch this version of the advert, and tell me you havent had something similar going on in your mind already. (Actually really, go on and tell me, blogging without comments is one step away from standing at a busy bus stop talking to yourself without the excuse of a hands free kit).

Guitar Hero

Well, I had a decent win from a small flutter on a fruit machine, (which was foolish anyway, usually I can't justify a £2 gamble!).

So I could invest it in paying off bills early or filling the freezer to give myself some breathing space.

Or I could be completely irresponsible and spend it on something stupid and pointless, and I think you know which way this is going to go...

Yes! Guitar Hero! That HUGE box has been enticing me in Game and Gamestation and online since its release date, but there's just been no way in hell I could justify the expense of buying a new video game. (especially as, because it comes with its own controller, its £50 instead of the usual £40.)

Having said that, I filled the nice man in Game's hand with a rather large pile of pound coins and a single £20, ( it was that or go to gamestation for a 'preowned' one, and given the lifespan of gaming peripherals, and given the fact that it was £42! yes, £42 for a second hand one. A 90 day guarantee is worth the extra £8 in my opinion.)

I went down to visit Fink with my shiny new toy, and plugged in and got started. The overwhelming thing I noticed about Guitar Hero, on playing it for the first time, is the huge difference between the way you look (a bit of a tool, to be honest) and the way you feel when you do well (which is bloody amazing!).

First attempt and it was awful, after about ten minutes tho, it all fell into place, and I was getting 4 star ratings on the 'easy' mode. Now I've got it home and I've put a few hours into it and I'm regularly clearing most of the medium level songs, although I'm struggling a little with the fast fretwork on 'Crossroads' by Cream, and checking the forum, it seems to be a sticking point for quite a few people.

Hard mode and expert, well, its a long way off I think, and involves learning some advanced techniques.

Something to look forward to, though, Guitar Hero II is released in November I believe, and comes with a second guitar, and 55 songs! Guns n Roses has been confirmed, along with Anthrax and quite a few other big names, and I'm pleased to see Primus on the list, too.
It'll also be nice to team up with another player to go on lead and rhythm or lead and bass guitar, (if I can find anyone that would dare to actually have a go! pansies, the lot of you!).

Anyway, its been nice to take my mind of WoW and real life for a bit.

Pageranks

Well, after Fink informed me of Pageranks, I thought I'd check myself, out of curiousity.
0/10!

Well, if I've got 1 other person out there that I occasionally entertain, that'll do, I'm not out to change the world, most of the time I'm just busy emptying the built up venom from my skull caused by the media and life in general. When I'm not doing that, I'm trying to give a pat on the back to the great things in life!

Typically, I found more, and some Chemical Brothers bits too.

This is the Big Train clip I was hunting for, one that Sony 'remade' for a PS1 commercial (pretty poorly I think, you'll find that on Youtube too).

Also, if you remember that mobile phone ad with the guy falling into a flexible floor, and poking thru a bendy window to say 'hi' to a female friend, well, he hasn't had it all his own way.
In this Chemical Brothers video, not only does he have a broken wrist, but something is out to get him...or is it in his head?

I've always liked the Chemical Brothers, but their videos are usually so interesting you could hate the music and still enjoy the visuals, for instance this one here, 'Star Guitar' is just one gimmick, beautifully done, (and maybe partly lost due to downgraded video), sadly the gimmick is given away by the comments, so if you think it's a very dull clip, check below and try again, and if you still think its dull, fair enough, each to their own!

Last one for now, is 'Let Forever Be' which just has to be seen, its wonderful imaginitive and brilliantly put together without having to really mean anything, although its a little creepy in places, still.

Video links again...

Firstly some proof that choreograpy doesn't have to be dull, and doesn't have to involve tutus.
OK GO's Treadmill dance video for 'Here it goes again' ..and it's not a bad tune either!

And a clip that must have taken so long to make, but it's a fine effect, live action space invaders, in a movie theatre.

(Geek Alert, I seem to remember you could only have one bullet in game at any one time, so for all its authenticity, it did fail on a minor point).

Grr, damn YouTube, keeps removing stuff for content violation, when are these big companies going to realise, if we like your stuff we're gonna buy it, next time we have a party, we're not gonna be rushing over to the PC to play a small video clip with a downgraded version of your precious music. Its free advertising, embrace it, don't shun it! One good video clip can be a better viral than a 30 second TV clip during the World Cup Final, and you're not even paying for the videos to be produced. You cannot turn back time, the internet HAS happened, you can dive in head first or you can stay on your little island and drown. Ahem, rant over, that was quite moderate for me, looking back at my last one on late night TV.

That was from discovering YouTube have been told to remove a clip of 'Ken Ishii vs FLR - Space Invaders 2003' which was a pretty mediocre piece of electro music, raised to fame by a video showing 'space invaders' from the side of the aliens, well one alien, with a family. Sadly of course, now, they'll get no free publicity, because the lawyers have been sent round.

I'm off again, but would they come after me with lawsuits if I was to decorate huge billboards around london advertising their latest music releases? I am thinking sadly they actually would, because the free ads would out of their control, and although they've already lost control, they cannot cope with admitting it, and therefore have to stomp on the little things they maybe can beat with a threatening letter.

This is quite an old one, perhaps showed up already in office emails, but if not, it'll take you back to the trumpets of 'Record Breakers', as a group of japanese students attempt 'improvised domino toppling' across 2 floors of their home. It works nicely, especially with them not having a single domino. I know I'd get endlessly frustrated trying to set something like that up, one breath in the wrong place, and its time to start again.

Just found this from the same bunch posting the domino thing though, and it redefines the phrase 'puppy dog eyes'. This poor dog's face as the treats stack up, knowing he must wait til he's told he can have them. To anyone saying its cruel, he sits there for a minute and then gets a load of treats, its maybe a mild piece of teasing, but cruel it isn't!

A stupid bit of sketch comedy to lighten things before I finish of with something evil I found. An american pair, there's just really well done about this video message for 'Mother's Day'. Back to England and the guys behind 'Shaun of the dead' for a NSFW (probably) twist on the 'smoking at work' issue.

Ok last of all, and you might want to skip these if you get nightmares easily, heh. I finally found a couple of Aphex Twin's videos, and bear in mind 'Come to Daddy' was in the top 20 'Scariest Moments ever' in one of those Channel 4 all night things, and 'Windowlicker' has the same 'wrongness' quality, but hold out til 3 minutes in before it really kicks in, whereas 'Come to Daddy' is mental from the start, heh.

More to come as I discover them...

TV : What about us insomniacs, eh?

Ok, so I'm up past 1am and Warcraft is a little underpopulated at the time, so I flick on the TV while I'm fishing in game.

What's happened?

There used to be 2 or 3 channels on after 1am, and you might be able to find something half watchable on. Not any more...

It seems every channel has decided to sell that patch of viewing space to some opportunists doing their best to collect an 'idiot tax'.

I'm referring ofcourse to 'The Mint' 'ITV Play' 'The Great British Quiz' etc. Honestly, can we not run some repeats of some dodgy old sitcom or some old black n white Dr Who or something? on ONE channel?

If you're lucky enough to have not seen any of this, it's basically trick questions, that fools phone a premium rate number to answer, to win unreachable money. Firstly , as an example. 'Add up the weights' and in the box there's 25,25,20,20,15,10,5,5 kg. Pretty simple, 125kg, right? Wrong, and I for the life of me cannot see how. OF course, if you can't see that 75p/£1 a call isn't an idiot tax, then you probably can't see that the right answer isn't right either.

Also, with the exception of one presenter 'Greg' I think, they're all just godawful, remember Brian Dowling camp winner of Big brother..uhh...sometime? No nor did I until they mentioned it, but he's the MOST famous person. I get the feeling 'Greg' knows he's stuck in a pretty poor gig, (although he's been promoted from Bid Up TV, and anyone that can talk about towels for 10 minutes without hesitation deserves a medal), and there's a sense of irony and despair about him, and he seems to drop the odd bit of entendre in, and his cameramen get to come out and basically arse around, even leaving callers waiting on the line while they dance around in stupid wigs pretending to be someone's gran. Each and every other one, though, soulless mindless POINTLESS autonomatrons, ( yes I tihnk I just made a new word to mean tedious android) and you could replace them all with a teaspoon stuck in a pear, and it would be more entertaining.

Another moment of comedy is the absolute idiocy of the callers, who at 4am, have no doubt just fallen through the front door after 86 pints of stella, which is the only reason I can think of that repeatedly calling a premium rate line would be a good idea. 'Name a green fruit' and they're going 'uhhhh orange?'.

This is not even the worst of it though. I was flicking through freeview, and discovered the 'Smile' Channel. For about 4 hours, there are 2 or 3 very bored looking model types, who just stand there and get filthy texts from drunken men. 'Will u show me ur boobs' and they're endlessly repeating 'we cant do that'. I find it scary that these channels make enough to stay on, meaning there's THAT many sad men who think these women will be interested in them if they just text in some sexist remarks.